OH Mock Election: Students reflect, counter Kendall County results

Despite her loss in the national election, Kamala Harris was victorious in the 2024 OH Mock Election with 47% of the student vote. Hundreds of students from all grade levels gathered in the auditorium to show their support by voting in the mock election. Sponsored by the honors society Rho Kappa, the mock election allowed all students to vote and get a glimpse of how real elections work.

“I was surprised about the amount of kids excited to cast a vote,” said junior Derek Yackley, one of the many students who voted in the mock election. The ballot included six questions, and students had an opportunity to express their opinion on a variety of topics.

The number of students who participated in this year’s mock election was extraordinary, totaling well over 1,800 votes for individual questions, according to Rho Kappa Sponsor and Social Studies teacher Scott White. To support the number of voters, student volunteers ran the polls.

“This year we had a turnout of around 20 students working throughout the day,” said senior Rho Kappa Vice President Taylor Yackley. “This mock election in particular is significant because it occurred throughout the day [and] each of the board members, Andrew Anderson, me, and Connor Omar, each helped by directing [students] where to go, crossing off names, and helping OHS students,” Yackley said.

This mock election in particular is significant because it occurred the day before the national election. This resulted in what can only be described as a political debate between students.

“I think the main thing that made this election significant was the massive turnout. Yes, students are required to come down during their history period,” said Taylor Yackley. “Instead, hundreds of students came and voted, which I think may be the correlation to [it being] a presidential election. In effect, many students wanted to get their voices heard.”

Students were patriotic leading up to the event; from political conversations to wearing flags supporting candidates of their choice, the spirit in this mock election was strong, and it demonstrated the amount of pride students have in their political beliefs.

The mock election can be compared with the Kendall County election. In the presidential ballot, majority of the Kendall County voted for only the two-party candidates: Trump and Harris. There was only a small percentage that voted for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK) plus write-ins, unlike the student election where there was over 10% in combined RFK and write-in votes, which displays how passionate students can be over their own ideas.

OH and Kendall County have very similar results with marginal differences excluding Heidi Henry winning the OH election with (50.3%) but losing the national election with (41.01%) The results in OH are divided, with all democratic candidates claiming victory with the majority vote, and majority of the statewide advisory questions being won by the republican vote.

The idea of bringing together different politcal views from different students is what makes the mock election a one of a kind experience.

“The mock election is important in simulating the electoral process for students to make them feel more familiar with the process,” said White. “While our mock election is not exactly like a real election, we hope that it simulates it in a close enough fashion for students to want to vote for real when they come of age to do so,” he said.

Ariel Raygoza- Photography Editor

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I am a senior at OHS, I am currently involved in the Panther Credit Union, 42Fifty, and Youth and Government. You can contact me at 30881537@students.sd308.org.

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